"MICHELLE H." wrote:

We would like to have a 6 foot high, Cedar wooden stockade fence
installed in our yard. My question is, when putting in the fence
posts for the wooden fence, do the fence posts HAVE to be set in
concrete?

Many people here don't really understand what's going on when it comes
to the longevity of fence posts.

That issue aside, there is some very basic information that you're not
telling us.

Where do you live? Your climate, temperature, humidity will play a
critical role in post longevity.

Unless you live in the south-west where freeze/thaw and water-soil
conditions are pretty irrelevant, then if you want a wooden fencepost to
last, it must be set in concrete, and the top of the concrete should
extend 6 to 8 inches above the ground level.

Wood posts will experience maximum deterioration 6 to 8 inches on either
side of ground or "grade" level. Well-mixed concrete will provide good
protection for that portion of the post that is set in concrete, and for
that protection to extend 6 to 8 inches above grade then you need to use
a cardboard tube (aka "sono-tube") to form a concrete pier that rises
above the grade level.

The use of concrete insures that your posts do not tilt over time, gives
the post some protection against direct exposure or contact with water
in the surrounding soil, and that they stay in exactly the position that
they are staked at when the concrete is poured.

The use of metal base-plates set in concrete that you bolt or screw the
posts into are only used by fools when it comes to fences. They are ok
to use for decks that have a 2-dimensional foot-pattern, but a fenceline
is a 1-dimensional foot pattern and you don't have enough lateral
strength in a pattern like that to use metal base-plate.

I know that most fence companies do set the fence posts in concrete
about 2-3 feet below the frost line.

In the lower-48 states and much of the southern tier of Canada, the
deepest frost line is 48 inches (4 feet). For a 6-foot fence, you
should go minimum 2 feet into a concrete-filled hole, so your posts need
to be minimum 8-feet long. The hole can be 3 feet, and you can throw
in a couple pieces of re-bar to give it strength.

If your posts are 4 x 4, then you need to use minumum 8" auger and drill
an 8-inch hole.

I have read many mixed reviews about setting posts in concrete,
because when the posts rot out, it is a backbreaking effort to
replace them because you have to dig out and lift up the heavy
concrete.

Because most people mix concrete like a jack-ass by throwing in cement,
pieces of brick, unwashed stone and other crap and then flood it with
water and think it will set correctly.

My backyard fence project uses 24 posts (each of them 6" x 6", 12 foot
long) set into 13" concrete piers that were drilled into very tough clay
soil, down to between 4 and 5 feet below grade. All piers had at least
4 pieces of rebar set into them. Some posts have a rebar "cage"
surrounding them when they were set into their hole. Posts are 10-feet
apart.

The posts are dense spruce (not cedar) and were painted to 2 coats of
creosote (at least the portion of the posts that were set in concrete).

So, do you have to have the posts put in concrete, or can we opt
to go with the crushed rock or gravel?

Are you going to still be the owners of this fence in 10 years?

20 years?

30 years?